Tips for Staying Healthy On Vacation & While Dining Out!

Why do vacations and trips always scare us to death when we think about staying on track for our lifestyle? Because it's a completely different atmosphere! You're on a different schedule, different foods are around you, and not to mention you're off your gym plan too!

But don't worry, follow these tips and the vacation will do as little damage to your progress as possible :) If you want to view my YouTube video on some tips, click here!

1. Portion sizes: You know I'm all about moderation not deprivation, but make sure it's MODERATION. You don't need the whole pizza, but maybe a slice or two are fine! Don't feel like you HAVE to finish your plate when you go out to eat at restaurants. Doggy bags are you friends and leftovers are sooooo tasty the next day. Ways you can watch your portion sizes are
1. Share your plate with a friend
2. Ask the waiter to split your dish in half! Serve you one half now, and save half in a to go box!
3. Don't order with your eyes! Sometimes our eyes are bigger than our stomachs, so try and order a smaller dish. If afterwards, you're still hungry, then you can always order another side.
2. Save on the calories: there are soooo many sneaky calories in dishes when you eat out! Try and lessen the calorie overload by:

1. Getting sauces on the side
2. Get grilled, baked, steamed dishes instead of fried, buttered, or creamy
3. Don't fill up on the table munchies (biscuits, breads, nuts, etc)
3. Allocate!  I'm always allocating my proteins, fats, and carbs!
1. Have open faced sandwiches or burgers! You don't need both buns for the taste! So just take one out and eat it open style!
2. If you're having a carby meal at night, lessen the carbs throughout the day! If you're having a fatty meal later, lessen the fats throughout the day
4. "I regret wasting calories on things that didn't taste as good as I hoped"

1. Don't waste your calories! If you don't like the food, don't eat it!
2. If you're at a buffet, look at everything before piling it all on your plate! Pick out the things you know you'll like instead of just filling yourself up with food you'll just regret later
5. Be annoying to the waiter! Ask how dishes are prepared, ask for no seasoning, ask for additional lemon, for steamed instead of fried, sauce on the side, etc etc. This is your life, who cares if one person gets annoyed!
6. KEEP ACTIVE 
1. Have a buffer for those additional calories! Add in activities like swimming, walking everywhere, going to amusement parks, etc. Keep active so that you don't have the DOUBLE negative of eating too much AND not working out! Add in some exercise/be active to help lessen the impact the additional food will have
7. Alcohol: Always aim for the less calorically dense choices. Don't go with the mixes with soda or juice because that's a lot of unnecessary sugars! Try vodka and water, vodka diet sodas, vodka sugar free redbull, or lightened up versions of your favorite drinks! Ask for mojitos with less sugar!

AND IT'S VACATION! Don't forget to enjoy yourself. Don't revolve your days around food or stressing about it all. If you're having a great time, food shouldn't be the center of attention! Spending time with your friends, family, loved ones SHOULD be! So have fun, relax, make smart choices, and you'll do great!

Ebelskiver Protein Pancake Puffs!

I love pancakes, but making little pancake ball puffs are so much fun! Especially when you can fill them with YUMMYY things like nutbutters, quest bars, nuts, the choices are endless!
For these, I stuffed my EHP Labs protein puffs with Nuts N More Chocolate Peanut Butter!

High Protein Cheesecake!

This has to be one of my FAVORITE recipes. High protein, pretty low calorie compared to Cheesecake Factory Cheesecakes, and SO easy to make!
Macros: makes 8 HUGE square servings (or you could do slices!)
1 out of 8: 198 calories, 9.7 g fat, 11.2 g carbs, 15.8 g protein!